


The Serpent Says

by Crazy_Dumpling



Category: Watchmen (2009)
Genre: Dark, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-17
Updated: 2010-07-17
Packaged: 2017-10-10 14:40:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/100878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazy_Dumpling/pseuds/Crazy_Dumpling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the aftermath of Adrian Veidt's grand plan to save the world, Dan tries to fix what is broken with himself. Adrian is determined to open his eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

  
When he leaves Karnak, Daniel swears to himself that he will have nothing more to do with Adrian Veidt, or Ozymandias, or any entity funded by, or any product manufactured by Veidt Enterprises. He sets up a new home with Laurie not far from the ruins of central New York and works on Archie in his spare time whilst writing books on owls for a speciality publisher in New Jersey. He donates to the charities not supported by Veidt Enterprises that are helping to rebuild the devastated city and switches the television set off whenever one of Adrian's commercials starts up.

Dan's doing fine, really. He repeats it to himself daily, trying not to think of Rorschach's final moments, or the way Adrian allowed Dan to pummel him after the farce of humanity's supposed salvation had been played out. He tries to forget the martyred, resigned look on Adrian's eyes as he let the blows rain down on his face.

He goes out with Laurie some nights and patrols the city, taking savage pleasure in roughing up any delinquents he encounters, but these are few on the ground now. Veidt's new Utopia is apparently a great success; crime is down thirty percent in the first six months after Dr Manhattan's great attack on humanity. There is not a lot that Dan can do, apart from chasing down pickpockets and bag-snatchers, and Laurie worries about the new viciousness of his attacks which usually leave his victims fighting to breathe. She asks if he wants to talk about it, but he shakes his head and, as a way of distracting her from the topic, pulls her to the bedroom where he fucks her roughly, his head buried in the curve of her neck. Her heels dig into his back and leave red marks there that last for a few days.

Dan arranges Hollis Mason's funeral as well, on a cold winter's evening in December, with the rain falling in sheets. He delivers a stuttering eulogy to his mentor, clutching a crumpled scrap of paper, to the few surviving veterans gathered to farewell the first Nite Owl. Hollis' remains had been cremated before the attack, so they stand around the urn that holds his ashes in an anonymous funeral parlour. Dan doesn't cry, but feels his throat tighten up dangerously at several moments during the speech. Angry, annoyed with himself, he tells Laurie to head home first (she replies that she's going to see her mother, who has recently rented an apartment not too far from where they stay). He takes a walk through what's left of Central Park, casually dislocating the shoulder of a hoodlum who tries to relieve him of his wallet, and scares off a pack of wandering teenagers who roam about looking for easy prey by breaking their leader's nose. Eventually he finds himself at Veidt Towers (which, somehow, managed to survive the worst of the Manhattan attack with little more than cosmetic damage) and scowls his way past security guards who let him in, recognising him as one of Mr Veidt's personal friends. Dan pushes the button in the elevator for Adrian's penthouse and tries not to think of the last time he was here, swatting the memories away like irritating flies.

Annoyingly, the elevator stops at the main level of Veidt Enterprises instead and his new personal assistant is about to refuse Dan entry when Adrian walks out of his office with a gaggle of reporters who are fawning over him, as usual, copying down everything he says with rabid enthusiasm. Resplendently dressed in his CEO outfit of purple blazer, black shirt and woolen trousers, he looks every inch the confident businessman who has a plan to rebuild his ruined city. After a beat he realises Dan is there and holds up a finger. One second.

"Ladies and gentlemen." Dan can hear the professionalism in Adrian's tone that is both polite and firm, "Thank you, again, for taking the time to come to Veidt Towers today. Your papers' support, along with that of your readers, will ensure that the efforts of the salvage crews working here will not go unappreciated - we will have our city back to her former glory as quickly and efficiently as possible. On that you have my word. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have another appointment that I am already late for. Matilda will show you the way out. Have a good evening." Veidt indicates his assistant, who scrambles to herd the journalists into the elevator Dan's just vacated.

"Dan!" The smile is as bright and as false as any that Adrian's ever given to the paparazzi or annoying hangers-on, but Dan chooses to ignore its superficiality and allows himself to be enveloped in Veidt's sure embrace. It wouldn't do to let fly with his fists just yet, and he knows his ego wouldn't take very well to being beaten down in public. A few journalists whisper and wonder who Dan is but Adrian whisks him into the office quickly, slamming the heavy wooden doors shut behind him and locking them with a deft flick of his wrist.

For a minute they don't say anything, and Dan watches as Adrian moves to stare out at the vast wastelands outside his glass window. A blimp for the New Frontiersman drifts by, and Dan is reminded of Rorschach and his last mail drop-off to the paper's offices. His anger, which had dissipated somewhat during his walk here, rises again. How dare Veidt stand here, as immaculately groomed as ever, and preach restoration for the city he has destroyed and the people whom he murdered on his road to peace? Dan thinks about Karnak and the snow and the stark contrast of red against white and has to stop himself from rushing Adrian and strangling the life out of him.

"Why are you here, Dan?" Adrian asks, breaking Dan's silent reverie. "I was under the impression you were avoiding me like the proverbial plague."

Daniel doesn't answer. He can't.

"Ah." Adrian says after a few seconds of silence. "I understand."

It is that same, arrogant, knowing tone that Dan has heard a few too many times and it proves the trigger for his outburst.

"You understand nothing, you fucking monster!" Without thinking, he's stalked up to Veidt, balled up his hand into a fist, and takes a swing at that calmly patient face. Dan can't be sure if Adrian didn't anticipate the blow, or if it's a replay of Antarctica and he's letting Dan pummel him out of a misplaced sense of sacrifice, but the punch catches Veidt on the chin, snaps his head back, bloodies his lip. Adrian falls back into his luxuriously padded desk chair like so much dead meat and Dan continues to rain blows down on him, hitting indiscriminately, landing them anywhere he can; he hits Veidt's belly, chest, arms, slaps Adrian across the face.

Not once does Adrian raise a hand to stop him.

After about three minutes Dan stops, alarmed to feel himself breathing heavily. Adrian's still conscious, though his face now sports a myriad of colourful bruises and his nose and upper lip are bleeding. His eyes watch Dan, but he still says nothing. He reaches into his pocket for a lilac handkerchief and cleans himself up after it's clear that Dan doesn't intend to hit him any further. Outside, the rain falls even harder, hitting the glass like bullets.

"You're insane," Dan whispers. "You think you have society worked out, that you understand human nature, but you're wrong! You sit up here like some ancient emperor, thinking that all your calculations will save humanity from itself, imagining you're like Rameses or Alexander, and that they're the only people who would ever understand your sad delusions. But they're _dead_, Adrian. Dead; like all those people you killed! And even if they were alive they wouldn't be as fucked up as you are!"

He raises a hand and thinks about hitting Adrian again, then realises that Adrian is waiting for him to do it, chin raised, eyes glinting like the cold edge of a knife. He lowers his fist, notes the bulge in Veidt's trousers.

"You're sick." He spits. He turns to go, fumbling with the lock on the door in his haste to leave. As he opens the door, he hears Adrian's voice behind him, low and velvety, a touch of breathlessness.

"You'll be back, Daniel."

And a part of him, that Dan is secretly scared of, knows Adrian is right. He slams the doors behind him, as hard as he can.

***

  
When he gets home that night, Laurie's eyes are worried and she asks him where he's been, and for so long, in the dark. And his clothes are all soaked through and Dan, God damn it, you should know better than to wander around in the freezing cold -

"I'm fine," Dan tells her. "I took a walk down to Chinatown to get something to eat and I think I must have stayed too long."

Dan's never lied to her before, and the frightening thing is, it's very easy to do when she hugs him close and tells him to forget it.

The next three weeks pass without further incident. Dan helps the Ornithological Society of America complete a study on the survival of the Barn Owl as a result of the encroaching urban sprawl in the state of Vermont, when he finds out that part of the study is being funded by the scientific division of Veidt Enterprises. He drops the assignment as quickly as possible, and Laurie nods understandingly when he tells her of his decision over dinner (take-out Chinese this time). They still patrol the streets, though now Laurie has a steady job as a volunteer at the re-built Central Park Zoo, Dan goes out more and more on his own. The crime rate is still annoyingly low and often he simply flies Archie in endless circles high above the city, consciously not letting himself drift too close to the purple beacon of Veidt Towers.

The rain isn't letting up, even though spring is fast approaching. Dan tinkers with Archie one stormy night while Laurie tells him about the new tigers the zoo will be getting in winter.

"They're from Siberia," she tells him, while Dan's trying to refill Archie's oil tank. "Apparently Adrian helped with the negotiations to bring them over. It's crazy, the way everyone's still so in love with him! If they knew half of what he's done -"

"They don't." Dan frowns, puts down the oil can. "The New Frontiersman ran excerpts from Rorschach's diary, remember? Everyone just said it was garbage. No one wants to think of Adrian as a villain; he's built his name up way too solidly for a small tabloid like the Frontiersman to have any effect on his reputation. People think he's damn near perfect."

Laurie snorts. "Well, I pity them."

Dan wonders if he does. Stepping back from the exposed innards of Archie's engine, he knocks over the oil can and swears quietly under his breath. The oil forms a black slick that takes ten washes to clean away. He tries not to think of the Arctic as he pushes the mop around, trying to soak up the stain.

The Ornithological Society fires Dan a letter a week later, asks him to reconsider his resignation from the project. Adrian Veidt, they say, only promised his backing on account of Dan being assigned to the study in the first place. With Dan gone, the study is no longer viable and thousands of Barn Owls are in danger of losing their habitats to manicured suburbs and strip malls.

"It's not as though we didn't think you were well-qualified on your own," the project director tells him when he phones the day after Dan gets the letter, "but with both you _and_ Mr. Veidt onboard, it'd just be - well. It'd just _look_ so much better for us. Say, how come you never told us that the two of you were friends in the first place?"

"There really wasn't an appropriate situation," Dan bites out.

"Oh, well." There is a pause and Dan can hear the director clearing his throat. That means he's not going to like what the other man has to say. "Look, we've set up a meeting between you and him next week. Could you please just at least pretend that you're still working with us? Say that there was a misunderstanding? Hell, I know the man's got a little queer thing goin' on, but if he wants to help our research just pretend to flirt with him a little, will ya, Dan?"

"What? No! This is ridiculous! I never agreed to whore myself out for -"

"Do this as a personal favour. For me and the rest of the team. Those of us still alive here, anyway. Thanks, Dan, you're one in a million!"

The phone is put down immediately on the other end of the line and Dan finds himself shouting at static. He puts down the phone, aghast at Fate's cruelty.

"Oh, hell."

***

  
Dan takes Archie out the night before his meeting with Veidt. He's still not sure if he's actually going to go along with it, but it's been weighing on his mind recently. He didn't tell Laurie. He doesn't know why.

Pointing Archie towards the ruins of New York that are slowly being rebuilt, he flies at a lower altitude than usual, observing the reconstruction efforts more closely than he's done before. It galls him to realise that Adrian is doing a decent job rebuilding the city. Already the gigantic sinkhole at the epicentre of the blast has been filled in and a memorial is being constructed, no doubt it will be tasteful and display some trite sentences about the dead and their sacrifice. Cynicism twists Dan's lips and he flies away, upwards, towards the moon that shines more brightly now that the smog of the city doesn't reach so far into the atmosphere anymore. It is a clear night, for once, and Dan enjoys the sights of the city for a moment before returning home.

"You're back early," Laurie remarks later, while he gets undressed. She's reading a book about Siberian tigers tonight. "Big plans for tomorrow, huh?"

"What?"

"Your calender," she points at the cheap wall calender that's currently displaying a disgustingly cute-looking Burrowing Owl, "you've circled tomorrow in red. Something to do with the bird people?"

"Yeah. I guess you could say that," Dan mutters, turning out the lights. "I've got to meet an old friend. They think it'll be good for the society if we secure this guy's support."

"I see. You guys talk much?"

"Almost never, these days." He admits. She sighs, turns on her side so she's facing him, slips an arm around his waist.

"You should change that, Dan. Life's too short for you to lose touch with people. You and I know that better than anybody."

"Hmm." Dan answers, but she's fallen asleep. He wonders if she would appreciate the irony in her last statement, wonders if Jon will suddenly materialise and tell her what Dan's been hiding, but there is no sudden flash of blue, and he falls asleep quickly.

***

In the end, the meeting goes surprisingly well. It might have to do with the fact that the project director has decided to come along as well, a fact that Dan is quietly thankful for. Adrian doesn't look even a little annoyed that an interloper has joined them, but is all professional courtesy and wide smiles, offering the man a glass of fine aged Scotch before they start, immediately getting on his good side. Dan finds he doesn't have to do much at all. He simply sits at the imposingly low visitor's chairs at Adrian's black onyx desk and watches the rain fall, listening to the ebb of the conversation. The project director sounds like a squawking sea-gull, all misplaced energy and constantly shifting focus, talking about the study's aims and the team that's been assembled, and where they are so far with the research, whilst Veidt just sits and listens, an indulgent look in his eyes as the director outlines plans for the conservation of the woodlands in Vermont. The bruises from Dan's last visit have all but faded, and Veidt looks as inhumanly perfect as ever.

The director talks himself hoarse after an hour and points to Dan, "Mr Dreiberg is back onboard, as you can see. He's very excited about the benefits our study will have for the Barn Owl population. In fact he's very interested in owls of all sorts. Aren't you, Dan?"

"Indeed." Veidt raises an elegant eyebrow in Dan's direction. "I am well aware of Daniel's predilection for, ah, night birds. Look, Mr Avis, Veidt Enterprises will be more than happy to continue funding for the project; it is our goal, of course, to take responsibility for any effects our industrial activities have on the environment. However, I'd much prefer it if Daniel here wasn't being forced into anything against his will. If he has any personal objections to my funding, I'd like to hear his reasons -"

"Well!" Avis starts up, blustering like a panicked gull, "I'm sure that won't be necessary. I-It was all a big misunderstanding! He's here today, after all -"

"Alone." Adrian regards Avis with a steady stare. "Dan and I haven't seen each other for a while and we need to catch up, but let me show you out first. Matilda has a few documents for you to look over when you have the time. And will you be requiring transportation anywhere?"

Before Dan properly grasps what's going on, Avis has already been shown out the door. The click of the lock sliding into place jerks him from his steady contemplation of raindrops against the glass window and he scowls at Adrian.

"Drink?" Veidt asks, moving to the minibar and pouring himself a full tumbler of brandy. Dan doesn't answer. "Oh come on, Daniel. Do stop acting like a three year-old. Of course I'll continue funding that silly little study of yours, although it's obvious that the woodlands Avis is talking about will be completely gone in the next year or so, if the big construction companies have anything to say. But Brown Owls are mightily adaptive, you know. Give it three years and the native population will be back up to normal numbers."

"Damn you," Dan mutters, finally finding his voice again. He turns to face Veidt. "It was just something to occupy my time! Don't you think I knew what the outcome of the study would be? I've studied these birds ever since I was a kid! Damn you, Adrian; you know I only signed on to it because it'd help take my mind off everything else you've been putting the whole world through these past few months! God damn you, do you know how much Laurie and I have had to sacrifice, keeping your disgusting secret to ourselves? How it's just eaten away at me? And all you can do is just stand there and ask me if I want a drink? What is _wrong_ with you, Adrian?"

"Do you think I'm completely inhuman, Dan?" Adrian walks forward, looks out the window. "From the very moment of its conception in my mind, I have punished myself for what I've done. I've tried to feel for every single life that I've extinguished Every single name and every single face. I can't even make you comprehend the burden of guilt I have borne. But sacrifices had to be made, and now look at what your silence has helped to secure! The future of humankind!" His expansive gesture takes in the city in one sweep, and Dan can see the workers in their bulldozers and cranes, helping to clear away rubble before new buildings are erected in place of destroyed ones.

"Just shut up! I've heard this story before!" Dan throws back. "God, I don't even know why I agreed to come in the first place. Should've just stayed at home -"

"Yes," Adrian looks back at him. "Why _are_ you here, Dan? I suppose Avis pulled the funding card, not that you couldn't find the money for the study yourself if you'd wanted. Oh and I imagine he asked you to 'take one for the team'? Played on your survivor guilt too, no doubt -"

"I did it because he's a friend and this was important for the Society!"

"Oh, really? Dan, please. Whilst I don't doubt your altruistic motivations for a minute, if you were really so bent on avoiding me, as you seem to be doing most nights in that little ship of yours, you would have found some way of getting out of today's meeting. And yet, here you are. Like you were a month ago. I don't need to be a genius to tell you that you're returning for a reason."

Dan is incensed. "And that is?"

A shrug of those immaculately-clad shoulders, but it's the knowing look in Veidt's eyes that undoes him. Dan reaches over, knocks the glass from Adrian's hand to the floor. Two steps is all it takes for him to reach Adrian and push him against the window, and Dan's hands encircle Veidt's neck all too easily. He squeezes, and is morbidly gratified to see Adrian turn a faint shade of pink. Dan's panting heavily in contrast to Adrian's struggle for breath, but the other man doesn't fight him and Dan wishes Adrian would at least try and fight him back as he squeezes the life out of him. But he is motionless. Like in Antarctica. Dan remembers useless kicks and flailing punches and cold logical reasoning, and his hands release their grip on Adrian's neck.

Veidt exhales shakily, leans back against the glass, his pale skin mottled with red marks where Dan's grasped him. He closes his eyes, looks as though he's dead, and suddenly Dan finds himself gathering handfuls of Adrian's shirt, pulling him close.

"You don't get to take the easy way out, you bastard!" He whispers harshly.

Then, for no reason he can fathom, Dan is pressing his lips against Adrian's. It's disgusting, his mind screams, and somewhere Dan can hear Rorschach going on about whores and decay, but then Adrian is responding, lips parting underneath Dan's, their tongues touching, sliding together. Dan tries to stop himself, but it feels as though he's drowning. His hands grip Veidt's shirt even more tightly and it is as though they're fighting again, and Adrian is finally responding, the first sign of any emotion Dan's ever noticed. His kisses are insistent, demanding, and Dan feels himself leaning forward, pressing Adrian against the glass again and Adrian is mewling into his mouth like a satisfied cat. A hand slides down, cups Dan's growing erection through the material of his trousers, and Dan finally jerks back to reality. Realises what he's just done.

"No!" He roars, horror gripping coldly at his insides. "No, this is _wrong_!"

Dan didn't want this. He didn't. He can't have. No. No no no. Dan can still see the desperate look on Rorschach's face, the calm serenity of Jon's eyes. He can see the tattered fedora coming to rest on the once virgin snow. He wants to scream at the grotesqueness of it all as he feels his world turning in on him. Instead he staggers backward and tries to remember how to breathe.

Adrian is leaning against the window, studying Dan's face, his own expression closed. Dan sees him watching, feels the rage building up again, swings at Adrian's face. The punch is wild, and it only delivers a glancing blow to Veidt's cheekbone. But Dan isn't around to see Adrian's reaction. He's already running out the office.

He knows he'll be seeing Adrian again, but Dan promises himself, as he leaves Veidt Towers that the next time, he'll kill Adrian.

He can hear Rorschach's cynical snarl in his mind as he hurries back home.


	2. Chapter 2

For the next few weeks, Dan works on the Barn Owl study during the daytime, and hones his body at night, preparing himself for what he feels will be the final showdown with Veidt. It's hard work, of course. His body is flabby from too many years of inactivity and bad Chinese takeouts, but he keeps at his daily exercise routines, adds a mile to his jogs every other day, and finally builds a new laser gun to replace the one he lost in Karnak.

Laurie watches him go about his work with a worried look in her eyes. The zoo is taking up more and more of her time now, and some zookeepers have even recommended she take up a correspondence course in animal management since she seems to have a natural affinity for working with the different creatures under her care. When she does come home, though, she finds Dan bent over some part of Archie that he's upgrading, or else practicing with a battered old punching bag down in the basement.

"Something's wrong, isn't it, Dan?" She asks one night, watching him fiddle with the night-vision settings on his goggles. "Could you at least tell me what it is that's got you so worked up?"

There's no answer. She sighs, goes over to him and takes the goggles from his unresisting hands. "Dan? Please?"

"Laurie, I -" He struggles with his conscience. "I just feel so cooped up in here sometimes, is all. I mean you have your work with the zoo, and all I have is Archie, and this stupid study that's probably useless anyway. I just wish there was more for me to do around here, you know? So I thought I'd get in shape, work out a proper patrol schedule like we used to have. Try and make more of a difference. We can't let Adrian have all the fun, can we?"

Laurie smiles uncertainly. "I guess. It feels like we're spending too much time apart now; like I know you're here, and that I can find you whenever, but we're pulling apart. So if it's anything serious, just tell me, all right? I can handle it, whatever it is. I don't want you becoming another Jon."

"Like Jon? Don't worry. I'm not going to turn blue and start controlling matter with my mind anytime soon," Dan tells her. They hug and he plants a kiss on her lips. "I'm sorry, I know I haven't been a very good superhero boyfriend lately. It's just this work I've been planning. But after next week? It's all about you, I promise."

"Superhero boyfriend? I like that! Makes you sound all dangerous and exciting… OK, I'll leave you to it. Just don't work too hard."

As Laurie leaves, Dan wonders how it got to be quite this easy to lie to her. Then he thinks about guns and bullets, and gets back to work.  


***

The next time Dan goes to Veidt Towers, it is at night, and during a torrential downpour. He flies Archie over to the building complex, maneuvering it so that his entry to Adrian's penthouse apartment will be as easy as possible; he doesn't want to fall forty stories to his death in the rain just because he slipped on his radar-invisible ship. Actually entering the building is not a challenge in itself; Dan simply uses his laser gun to cut a wide enough hole in the plate-glass that he can fit through. But at this altitude and with the winds whipping up around him, crossing the gangplank to said opening is hazardous, even with the specialised grips built into his Nite Owl suit's boots, so Dan moves slowly until he reaches the window and pushes himself through with a sigh of relief. He returns the ship home remotely and feels a little empty as he hears it take off into the distance.

Flicking on the small infra-red switch on his goggles, Dan makes his way slowly down the ornate corridor to the double doors that lead to Adrian's private quarters. He's never been in there before, but the added modifications to his goggles amplify his surroundings and Dan hopes that will give him the advantage he needs in the fight ahead. A small, ever-pessimistic part of him hisses that, even with all the various enhancements to his suit he's crafted in the past eight weeks, he'll be lucky to leave Veidt Towers alive at all. Well, at least he'd do the world a favour and take Veidt out along with him. That would be Dan's late apology to the rest of humanity. He wonders about Laurie and hopes she forgives him after she reads the letter that will be delivered to her next week, informing her why he's chosen to do this. If, by some miracle, he's alive at the end of tonight, Dan thinks he'd like to try and start a family with her. Try and raise their kids to be little vigilantes when they're old enough; see if their kids will be any less fucked up than their parents.

Dan shakes his head to clear his thoughts, and reaches for his utility belt, about to pick the lock to Adrian's bedroom, when he realises the door is ajar already. Rorschach would have said that it looks like a trap, and it probably is; only Dan has come too far to abort the mission now. If he leaves it another few months, he doesn't think he'll get another chance at this, and besides, if Adrian is on to him already then there's no point prolonging the torture. He pushes the door open as quietly as he can and steps inside, listening for the tell-tale swish of a cape dragging on marble floors, but is relieved when he hears nothing. Taking a breath, Dan looks at his new surroundings; there is a king-sized bed on a platform overlooking another panoramic view of the city, a desk and chair and bookshelves lining the walls of the bedroom, crammed to overflowing with various books and assorted bits of antiques, photographs and old 45 records. It's all very interesting, but Dan's attention focuses on the figure lying prone on the bed. Squinting through his goggles, Dan makes out the faint shape of Adrian's body under the covers.

This is it. There is no going back now. Dan moves quickly and as quietly as he can manage, holding the laser gun out in front of him. He's going to enjoy this, he thinks; saving the world from the ambitions of Adrian Veidt will be a pleasure. He moves to the side of the bed and is about to trigger the gun, when something hits him on the side of his face, with enough momentum to knock him onto the bed. Before Dan can fully grasp what is going on, there is a sharp blow on his wrist, forcing him to drop the laser. He hears it being kicked away somewhere. Then there are blinding lights in his eyes and with his goggles still set on night-vision mode, Dan is forced to raise his hands to his eyes.

"Daniel." It is as cold a tone as he's ever heard Adrian use. "That's enough."

"Like hell!" Dan growls, changes the setting on his goggles to normal. Adrian flickers into view, dressed in his Ozymandias suit and by the look in his eyes, Dan knows he's crossed a line that Adrian marked in the sand a very long time ago. Reaching for his belt again, Dan finds the pellet-sized smoke grenade he's been working on and throws it at Adrian in one fluid movement, pushing himself up from the bed at the same time. Clouds of thick smoke bloom where it lands, and Dan knows he has less than five seconds before Veidt overcomes the choking smoke and finds him. Using what little advantage he has, Dan aims a kick at Adrian's head, but his foot is caught immediately. A glance at the other man tells Dan that Adrian is holding his breath, and by a sheer force of will, not blinking. Then Dan is tossed across the room and Adrian is standing over him again, with a bemused smirk twisting his full lips, a booted foot pressing Dan's back hard against the cold marble floor.

"Dan, Dan, Dan. I must congratulate you. That grenade is an inspired touch; very original. Although, I am very disappointed that you were fooled by the dummy in my bed." Veidt points to the life-size mannequin arranged amongst the downy purple pillows and blankets. "I did expect better, in that respect. But your use of technology is impeccable, as I expected. And you've come back, as I said you would."

"To kill you!"

"Ah," Adrian arches an eyebrow, steps backward, releasing Dan. "So you like to tell yourself. Was that ever your plan, Daniel? Shall I tell you the real reason you keep coming back here? Back to me?"

The tone of suggestion in his voice is infuriating, and Dan rises from the floor with a guttural roar. He swings blindly at Adrian, only to have his blows blocked with disdainful ease. Adrian's face is serene as he deflects the punches and kicks Dan aims at his his solar plexus, chest, arms, head. The lack of emotion is driving Dan mad. With a half-choked scream of frustration, he throws a punch and overextends his arm, giving Adrian the opening he needs. Adrian ducks, tackles Dan around the waist, pushes him up against the bookcase. Before Dan can try anything else, he is punched smartly in the stomach. It winds him and he collapses to the floor in stunned silence.

"Now we can talk without you interrupting me." Adrian walks to his desk, presses a concealed button. Thick drapes lower over the windows and blot out the New York skyline. He turns a dial and dims the lights as well. The vastness of the room shrinks and suddenly they are sitting in a small pool of light around Adrian's desk.

"You are ill at ease in my new world, aren't you; you think I've taken your life away from you." It isn't a question, and Dan can't answer anyway, so he just sits and listens as Adrian continues. "And yet, you don't seem to realise that it was my very creation of this peace that allowed your own rebirth. Oh yes, Dan. You found your life's purpose again last year when you were tracking my movements, investigating Rorschach's Mask Killer, wooing Laurel away from Jon. You felt that you were your true self when you put on that suit of yours. You felt _passion_ again, Dan, so many years after Nixon crushed it out of you. And now?"

Here Adrian pauses, looks at Dan. "Now, Daniel, you seek me out, however unwillingly you make it out to be. You define yourself by me. I am the opposite of anything you are, or so you tell yourself. I am evil incarnate and I have gotten away with my inhuman plan to save humanity. That is why you avoided me at first, because you were disgusted by the sacrifices I made on the behalf of others'. And so you think to murder me, to avenge the deaths of all those millions I killed. Oh, I must not forget Rorschach as well. Yes, you think that this is especially for him. But what you do not understand, Dan, is that if you kill me, there will not be a villain in your life for you to oppose. Think on it. If I die now, how will you structure your life? The streets are almost free of crime: there is no need for a Nite Owl now. The police are becoming better organised and have made significant inroads into the gang problem. You risk becoming out of place already. With me gone, do you think you will have anyone to oppose you in the same way you think I do? We are too much part of each other now, you and I. I would have let you go on with your silly notions of righting my wrongs, but my work is too valuable to let you interfere with. This silly charade of yours must end tonight."

"You're mad." Dan whispers. It hurts to talk, and Adrian's words have chilled him to the bone. "Fuck. Adrian… All your crazy schemes to manufacture your false peace have driven you insane!"

"Am I?" Adrian walks over, hooks his arms under Dan's armpits and hauls him to his feet. "You and I both know that is unlikely. But if I am, then please, do go ahead and continue with your plan to rid the world of my madness. There is a knife of some sort in your belt, isn't there? Well, then. Here I am."

He steps back, opens his arms again in a gesture that manages to be both martyr-like and mocking. Standing directly under the glow of one of the spotlights, Adrian's eyes are hidden in shadow and his hair reflects the light, creating the illusion of a halo. He looks like a tarnished angel. Dan swallows, reaches for the sharpened crescent of titanium hanging on his belt. This isn't how he planned for things to turn out. Veidt should be crying, begging for a chance to redeem himself, telling Dan that it was all a mistake and asking him for forgiveness. He shouldn't be like this, all calm composure and assured self-righteousness, looking like some ancient Greek statue come to life.

_Stop it, Daniel._ The voice in his head sounds eerily like Rorschach's. _He killed millions. No pity. None for scum like him. Do it._ But all Dan can do is bring the blade up to the side of Adrian's neck and press it against his skin, where the sharp edge draws a smudge of red.

"You're wrong about me," he tells Adrian, hoping the other man doesn't see the desperation in his eyes. "You destroyed _everything_ I was at Karnak." Suddenly he can't say anything more, because the knife is clattering to the floor and he is threading gloved fingers through Adrian's hair and then he is saying,

"Fix me, you bastard," before kissing Veidt like a man about to die, whilst the world collapses around him again like a fragile house of cards.

If Adrian knew it was going to happen like this, he doesn't stop Dan to gloat. Instead, he responds in kind, presses his fingers against the back of Dan's head to deepen the kiss, his tongue probing the depths of the younger man's mouth. The voice in Dan's head that sounds like Rorschach is screaming, but Dan doesn't pay attention. He can't, doesn't want to, not when Adrian is taking him to pieces with his lips and tongue and fingers. He strips Dan of his costume easily without breaking their kiss, fingers unfastening buckles, unzipping zippers, lingering over every patch of skin that they uncover. Dan tries to do likewise, but his movements are less fluid, less certain. He fumbles with the intricacies of Adrian's suit, forcing them apart whilst he tries to pull off armour that moulds all too easily around the athletic perfection of Adrian's body. After a while, with only the top part of his suit removed, Adrian pushes Dan onto the bed with a hint of impatience. He takes off the rest of the suit himself and, even though his goggles have been removed, Dan is breathless at the sight of Adrian naked.

Adrian lowers himself over Dan, takes his wrists and pins them over his head, studying the man underneath him. Dan shifts uncomfortably. It is hard to comprehend what just happened, what final thread of his self-control snapped to allow _Adrian fucking Veidt_ to have him naked and vulnerable like this. Adrian stares at Dan as though he's a complex mathematical puzzle that he has to find a workable solution to. Yet, now, there is a look of detached indulgence that accompanies Veidt's assessment of Dan, like an absent parent noticing their wayward child for the first time.

"Fix you," Adrian murmurs. "Oh but Daniel, you have already tried fixing yourself. Let me show you why it didn't work."

His first kiss is a mere brushing of lips against the hollow of Dan's neck, but the pressure of lips against skin builds as Adrian kisses his way down Dan's body, carefully skirting Dan's erection, nipping and licking sensitive areas that make Dan hiss and gasp like he's being burnt. Adrian continues to tease him like this until Dan is almost crying, pleading for Adrian to end it.

"No. You must learn patience."

With that, Adrian kisses Dan's protesting mouth, their tongues meeting, tangling briefly and Dan pulls back to gasp as Veidt runs his hands down his back, cupping his ass. Dan sucks in a breath, arches himself against Adrian, pressing their hot skin together.

"Adrian! I -"

"Hush, Dan. Patience, as I said. Patience and control." He disentangles himself from Dan, moves over to the bedside table and produces a small, inconspicuous tube from a drawer. Adrian coats his fingers with a thick layer of lube before returning to Dan, nudging his legs apart with his thigh. He braces one arm across Dan's chest and trails the other down his chest.

"Ready?" And even though Dan nods furiously, Adrian's hand takes a leisurely journey down Dan's body, stroking his thighs, cupping his balls, before probing gently at the pucker of Dan's asshole. Dan's trying very hard not to mewl in frustration and Adrian glances at him with an indulgent smile before breaching him with two lubricated fingers. They press upwards, searching and suddenly Dan is howling as they find their mark, his cock leaking precum and leaving smears on the white skin of Adrian's belly as he arches upwards.

"Do you want it, Dan?" Adrian is asking , his voice low, tight with control. "Do you want me?"

"Yes!" Dan says. Yes because he's so tired of fighting, of opposing, of trying to be _right_. Yes, because he wants to go on living. Yes, because he _needs_ this now. Yes, because if Adrian doesn't fuck him right now, he thinks he'll go crazy. Yes, because he's not sure what anything is anymore.

He misses the small smile of victory on Veidt's face as Adrian lifts his hips, pulls his fingers out and sinks himself into Dan. Dan groans as Adrian fills him, but Adrian is silent, withdrawing nearly all the way before plunging in again. He fucks Dan steadily, their hips rubbing together, quiet except for the sound of skin slapping wetly against skin. Dan reaches between them to take his aching cock in hand, but Adrian knocks his hand away. This is about control, his expression seems to say, and Adrian Veidt is nothing if not in supreme control of his body. There is a flush about his cheeks, but he doesn't gasp and moan the way Dan does. Adrian bends down, his lips brushing Dan's ear, his hips starting to move faster.

"You want me to fix you, do you Dan? You want me to take this all away, bring everyone back?" One of his hands is enveloping Dan's cock in a sure grip, stroking him in time with Adrian's thrusts. "Or do you want me to make you anew? Turn you into everything you should have been, but have never had the chance to become? Tell me, Dan. Let me know if you want to be part of me, or apart from me. Say it, Dan. _Say it!_"

But Dan can't. He is coming: his eyes screwed shut against the violence of his climax, his hands freeing themselves from Adrian's grip to clutch at his arms as his body jackknifes off the bed. Adrian follows him a short time later, a low groan the only indication of his orgasm.

Silence. They lie together for an age, their limbs entwined with each others', a tangle of sweaty skin and cooling spunk. Eventually Adrian gets up, pushes Dan away not unkindly, and moves to the bathroom where Dan can hear him cleaning up. After a few minutes, Adrian returns with a wet towel, which he tosses at Dan. Once they are both clean, they lie together on the bed, warily at ease with each other after their earlier violence.

"Sleep now," Adrian tells Dan, and turning on his side so that his back is towards Dan, he switches off the lights, plunging the room into cold darkness that is like the inside of a tomb. "We'll see what the world has in store for you tomorrow, my Lazarus."

***

  
When Dan wakes, it is alone to the sight of sunlight pouring in through the window. The drapes have been raised and the city before him is bathed in the soft golden glow of the morning. He has a fleeting memory of being woken in the night and Adrian taking him with exquisite slowness, teasing him until Dan was nearly delirious with need and then fucking him from behind, his fingers in Dan's hair, holding him in place. Adrian had been muttering words in Latin that made no sense to Dan's befuddled senses; all he could think about was the strange unreality of the situation, and the burning need he felt for Adrian's skin against his. He remembers screaming into his pillow as he climaxed, white stars dancing in front of his eyes.

Dan blinks and stretches, feels the tug of protesting muscles and the slight soreness that indicates a little too much physical exertion. The sheets his legs are tangled in are stained with smears of semen and Dan wrinkles his nose, pushes them away. He washes in Veidt's ridiculously large bathroom, admiring Adrian's skill at leaving no discernible marks on his skin. No, he thinks wryly, the bruises are hidden away underneath it. He still can't quite comprehend what he's done, but somehow he feels stronger than he has in months, more at peace. He knows it's wrong, of course, because Rorschach would say so and Jon would tell him that it won't last; but here, now, he feels a calm that has eluded him since Karnak.

His Nite Owl costume has been taken away and a tailored suit has been offered in its place. It is very likely from Adrian's personal couturier in Savile Row, Dan guesses, and it fits his body like a glove, though he thinks he will wear it only this one time to get home and then put it away somewhere Laurie won't be able to find it. A replacement pair of glasses are black-rimmed and heavy, sitting imperfectly on his nose. He knots that tie that Adrian has provided, raising an eyebrow at the stylised motif of a Horned Owl in flight.

There is a plate on Adrian's desk that holds two figs, and a plain white envelope with a Veidt Enterprises crest on the corner. Dan opens it and is surprised to find nothing but a card with a telephone number inscribed in raised black type. Adrian's private line, he thinks, and bites into one of the figs. The skin of the fruit splits open to reveal the soft fleshy mass of seeds inside. Dan expects an image from Antarctica to flash through his memory, as has been the case for so long now, but instead finds himself thinking of sinking his teeth into the pristine paleness of Adrian's skin. He can picture the two of them naked, Adrian underneath him, moving in perfect time with each other.

It is an image that doesn't disturb him. In fact, he finds it quite reassuring. _This_ frightens Dan badly.

As he leaves Veidt Towers (Adrian has been called away to meetings all day, it seems), Dan expects himself to hear Rorschach in his mind, berating him for his sickening capitulation. But the voice is silent. He gets a cab home, too disturbed to talk to the cabbie, who rants about making nice with Commies.

That night, with Laurie's arm around his waist in the darkness, listening to the soft fall of the rain outside his window, Dan thinks of someone else next to him. He does not dream of Karnak at all.

Adrian's private phone rings the next day, as he knew it would.

  
_Lazare, veni foras.  
\- John 11:43_


End file.
